Chael's okay in my books | Page 2

That said, his ubiquitous presence on YouTube has caused me to turn around. I actually really enjoy his videos. He's informative, prescient with predictions, and fairly entertaining. I also kind of dig the grainy production.

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His podcast, "You're Welcome," is also a lot of fun. You can find it at podcastone. Here's a link:

Sonnen watched a 2009 interview with Riordan after he failed to place in the 2008 Olympics, and then failed to make the 2009 team, and determined to help.

Riordan explains.

“I’ve wrestled [Sonnen] once,” said Riordan. “It was at University Nationals, it was my freshman year in college, I didn’t even think he’d remember it…

“I get an email from him saying ‘Hey, I want to send you some money, it’s going to be in an envelope that looks like junk mail, because it was from his bank, his bank just cut a check and sent it and they send them in unmarked envelopes so people don’t steal the mail.

“He sent me three or four thousand dollars, and for me every thousand dollars was a month’s pay. Room and board were a thousand dollars a month.

“Chael is a big wrestling fan, and I had a rough year in 2009, I had a staph infection in my ankle so i wasn’t able to wrestle. I was up a weight at the [World Team] trials, and lost only one match, in the clinch, and it really hurt me. [Sonnen] said he saw an interview afterward where I said I wanted to go to Russia for a year and train, and he said he thought that was a really great idea and he wanted to help contribute, get me over there, and help me out along the way.

“After I was already there, I won three tournaments, I beat the number three wrestler in Russia from the year before. [Sonnen] ended up sending me another 2 or 3 thousand dollars, he told me to enjoy myself over there.

“He would send me emails every once in a while and check up on me, see how I was doing, and I was doing the same with him. He was just following up and seeing how training was going. We talked about the experience over there.

“I had no existing relationship with him before this, but now we still keep in touch.”

Sonnen watched a 2009 interview with Riordan after he failed to place in the 2008 Olympics, and then failed to make the 2009 team, and determined to help.

Riordan explains.

“I’ve wrestled [Sonnen] once,” said Riordan. “It was at University Nationals, it was my freshman year in college, I didn’t even think he’d remember it…

“I get an email from him saying ‘Hey, I want to send you some money, it’s going to be in an envelope that looks like junk mail, because it was from his bank, his bank just cut a check and sent it and they send them in unmarked envelopes so people don’t steal the mail.

“He sent me three or four thousand dollars, and for me every thousand dollars was a month’s pay. Room and board were a thousand dollars a month.

“Chael is a big wrestling fan, and I had a rough year in 2009, I had a staph infection in my ankle so i wasn’t able to wrestle. I was up a weight at the [World Team] trials, and lost only one match, in the clinch, and it really hurt me. [Sonnen] said he saw an interview afterward where I said I wanted to go to Russia for a year and train, and he said he thought that was a really great idea and he wanted to help contribute, get me over there, and help me out along the way.

“After I was already there, I won three tournaments, I beat the number three wrestler in Russia from the year before. [Sonnen] ended up sending me another 2 or 3 thousand dollars, he told me to enjoy myself over there.

“He would send me emails every once in a while and check up on me, see how I was doing, and I was doing the same with him. He was just following up and seeing how training was going. We talked about the experience over there.

“I had no existing relationship with him before this, but now we still keep in touch.”

“King Mo” told MMA Fighting that he has no plans to ever face Sonnen, someone he looked up to as an amateur wrestler and, more so, someone who offered him a hand when he was down. Lawal said he was struck by Sonnen’s generosity years ago when Lawal had potentially life-threatening staph infection.

“When I was sick, he hit me up out of the blue and was like, ‘If you’re hurting for money or anything, if you need help, I got you. I’ve got money put aside. I can give you money to pay your bills,’” Lawal said. … “I didn’t need it, but I was like, ‘Thanks, bro.’ The fact that he reached out to me like that was shocking. Me and Chael are cool, but just for him to put himself out there to help me, not many people would actually help people.”

Lawal, 35, had very bad staph in 2012 following a torn ACL and needed 14 surgeries to treat it. There were times when he though he wouldn’t make it and other times when he was sure he wouldn’t fight again.

Sonnen contacted him suddenly — the two aren’t that close — with that offer and Lawal said he’ll never forget it or stop being grateful. Lawal said the best thing about it is that Sonnen has never really spoken about it publicly.

“People help people, but when they do it’s like a feel-good story,” Lawal said. “Chael came out of the blue. And you know what the funny thing is? When it was all said and done, no one knew but me. And I put it out there, like ‘Chael did this for me.’ … He never said nothing. Still to this day, he don’t bring it up; I bring it up.”

“King Mo” told MMA Fighting that he has no plans to ever face Sonnen, someone he looked up to as an amateur wrestler and, more so, someone who offered him a hand when he was down. Lawal said he was struck by Sonnen’s generosity years ago when Lawal had potentially life-threatening staph infection.

“When I was sick, he hit me up out of the blue and was like, ‘If you’re hurting for money or anything, if you need help, I got you. I’ve got money put aside. I can give you money to pay your bills,’” Lawal said. … “I didn’t need it, but I was like, ‘Thanks, bro.’ The fact that he reached out to me like that was shocking. Me and Chael are cool, but just for him to put himself out there to help me, not many people would actually help people.”

Lawal, 35, had very bad staph in 2012 following a torn ACL and needed 14 surgeries to treat it. There were times when he though he wouldn’t make it and other times when he was sure he wouldn’t fight again.

Sonnen contacted him suddenly — the two aren’t that close — with that offer and Lawal said he’ll never forget it or stop being grateful. Lawal said the best thing about it is that Sonnen has never really spoken about it publicly.

“People help people, but when they do it’s like a feel-good story,” Lawal said. “Chael came out of the blue. And you know what the funny thing is? When it was all said and done, no one knew but me. And I put it out there, like ‘Chael did this for me.’ … He never said nothing. Still to this day, he don’t bring it up; I bring it up.”

Detested him the entire time he was fighting in the UFC. Thought he was a racist, criminal, asshole. That said, his ubiquitous presence on YouTube has caused me to turn around. I actually really enjoy his videos. He's informative, prescient with predictions, and fairly entertaining. I also kind of dig the grainy production.

Click to expand...

I bet Chael can goto bed tonight and sleep so well that some scrub orange belt on Sherdog Now likes him